Students and teachers alike are enthralled by the Flip Video camcorder, an easy-to-use project tool that is charging up the classroom in a way not seen since the arrival of the iPod. Of course, video equipment, like any number of audiovisual tools that can be reserved and shared in the school setting, has been around for some time, and many…

Scott McLeod says the great sin in the way professional development is provided in this country is one of omission. On his blog, McLeod, an associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Iowa State University and the coordinator of the department's Educational Administration Program, writes, "Most of our…

In this article, the author explains how early diagnosis of academic deficits is pivotal in keeping students from falling irretrievably behind. Twenty-first-century technology tools can have a major role in accomplishing this by helping with data collection, analysis, and classroom intervention. Here, the author describes how various schools…

Hiring substitute teachers used to be an early-morning calling burden for staff members at schools in Oregon's Coos Bay School District. Now that work has been passed off to Aesop, a service from Frontline Placement Technologies, which springs into action upon receiving a notification, either by call or log-in, from a teacher reporting an absence.…

From her first encounter with stereoscopic 3D technology designed for classroom instruction, Megan Timme, principal at Hamilton Park Pacesetter Magnet School in Dallas, sensed it could be transformative. Last spring, when she began pilot-testing 3D content in her third-, fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms, Timme wasn't disappointed. Students…

Brewster Elementary, a rural K-6 school of almost 500 students, just north of Yakima, WA, could reasonably be considered a school at risk: Fully 92 percent of its students qualify for Title I funding; 83 percent use English as a second language. For eight years running, Brewster has been using the HOSTS Learning system, with funding help from the…

This article describes the latest skirmish in the war between security and privacy concerns that is escalating as technological advances open up all sorts of new possibilities for school districts, both for better and, if misused, for worse. Brittan Elementary School in Sutter, California, had the best intentions when it implemented a radio…

This article describes how technology is providing students with unique challenges the regular, personalized assessments they need which yearly state assessments fail to do. Special education students--whether they have emotional or learning problems, English language deficiencies, or simply bad dispositions--are poorly served by one-size-fits-all…

When mobile assessment tools was first introduced to teachers at Kyffin Elementary School in Jefferson Country, Colorado, teachers were not comfortable with the technology. According to Blanche Kapushion, principal at Kyffin, teachers were not used to using technology in class, and it did not look like that was going to change. Nonetheless,…

About two years ago, Ohio's school district, like many other districts nationwide, was beginning to feel the first effects of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Reading scores at many of Ohio's elementary schools were unacceptably low, and one school in particular--Fairmount Park Elementary School--had been labeled as "in need of…

Many kinds of professional development exist within and across schools, but the IMPACT Model School Grant has provided enough professional development dollars to allow some "best practice" modifications to two common models that have reputations for being less than effective: conference attendance and outside consultants. The principal…

Through conversations with students across different grade levels, there is clear evidence that two of the things they most desire contradict each other--and they use electronic technology to get both of them. This author had conversations with three groups of students in Seattle about their favorite electronic technologies, and any concerns they…

School districts discover that the secret to implement a good laptop program is to find a good partner. This article features educational partnerships that provide tools and support districts need to roll out successful laptop programs. At Cincinnati Country Day School district administrators joined with Toshiba and a solution provider to provide…

The author begins this article by relating the experiences of her fourth-grade students who had just completed an intensive four-week project that involved crafting arguments to convince their local school board to allow a field trip to the Missouri state capitol so they could explore their state's government in person and in depth. Just one year…

The PDA was originally conceived of as a portable handheld electronic device that provided a user with a tool to organize his or her life through easy access to a personal calendar, daily planner, and address book. Over the years, these devices have expanded to include many new functions, which have helped more applications in diverse fields. This…